Figure 1

Schematics show (A) Perimeter cell-cell contacts and single surface diffusion in 2D. (B) Global cell-cell contacts and global diffusion through surrounding cells in 3D. (C) The gross appearance of a 3D cell spheroid (live cells stained with calcein-AM) is similar in shape and size to (D) structures that make up an in vivo breast cancer tumor growing in a mouse²³. (E) Traditional tissue microarray (TMA) uses an array coring device to remove and arrange tissue cores from paraffin embedded tissue samples in a paraffin recipient block. (F) The spheroid microarray is arranged in aqueous conditions and stabilized in agarose. The entire microarray and mounting cassette are infiltrated with paraffin to enable sectioning.